Special clothing and accessories for prevention of contact by blood and other body fluids has long been recognized as necessary in medical environments to protect the health of workers and patients alike. To this end many special protective garments in the form of suits, gown, drapes, masks, gloves, etc., have been developed and routinely used in hospital and clinic operating rooms, recovery rooms, isolation wards and other like areas.
These areas are typically activity-specific, i.e., they are entered for the purpose of performing specific tasks, for example, surgery, delivery of babies, dressing burn wounds, etc., and are generally not exited until the tasks are completed. The areas also, generally, provide stable conditioned environments in which to do the work. The work itself, although requiring great skill, care, and concentration is usually fairly stationary.
The special medical protective garments currently available are designed and constructed for use in the activities and under conditions described above. They are, typically, outerwear worn over standard work uniforms or street clothing, and are discarded by the wearer after each use for laundering or disposal.
Currently available medical protective garments are not intended, nor are they suited, for use in situations involving changing or hostile work environments, long periods of strenuous activity or exertion requiring full-range limb mobility by the wearer, high risk of damage, contamination, or heavy soiling to outerwear, and in which frequent exchange of protective outerwear is impractical. Such situations are routinely encountered by a large group of medical workers including emergency room personnel, emergency response personnel, paramedics, and the like.